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In this interview, we meet Pasquale—an accomplished prop-firm trader known for extracting seven-figure withdrawals by pairing a clean technical toolkit with a fundamentals-first worldview. Filmed as a straight-talk conversation, Pasquale breaks down how he builds a weekly bias from interest rates, inflation, and employment data, then expresses that view with simple execution on higher timeframes (H1–H4), mostly on gold. He’s compelling because he’s done it for over a decade, scaled across many challenges, and treats the prop space like a business—focused, opportunistic, and detached from outcome.
In this piece, you’ll learn how Pasquale turns macro into money: setting a clear weekly bias on Sunday, waiting for simple price action at key zones, and managing trades with realistic risk-reward (often 1:2–1:5) and a steady ~60% win rate on prop accounts. You’ll also see the prop-firm playbook behind those big payouts—why he stacks multiple evaluations, keeps risk consistent from challenge to funded, and prioritizes psychology and repetition over “holy-grail” indicators—so you can adapt his approach to your own trading without getting lost in noise.
Pasquale Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core philosophy: fundamentals first, simple charts to execute
Pasquale builds a directional view from macro—rates, inflation, labor, and central-bank guidance—and then uses clean technicals to time entries. The goal is not to predict every tick but to align with the week’s most probable re-pricing and take only the high-quality pushes.
- Start with macro: rate-path expectations, surprises vs. consensus, and cross-asset risk tone (equities, bonds, dollar).
- Define a one-sentence bias before market open each week: “This week I am [long/short] [USD/Gold/GBP/etc.] because [macro reason].”
- Use technicals only to express the bias (structure, levels, and timing), never to invent a view that macro doesn’t support.
- Trade fewer, bigger ideas: one to two meaningful trades per day max; if the bias is unclear, stand down.
Weekly bias workflow (Sunday planning)
He treats Sunday as mission-planning: map the calendar, locate where the market is mispriced, and decide the base case. This concentrates attention for the week and prevents FOMO from reacting to random candles.
- On Sunday, review the week’s top 3 catalysts (e.g., FOMC/BoE, CPI, NFP) and write expected outcomes and market “wrong-foot” spots.
- Pre-tag instruments that best express the bias (e.g., short USD via XAU/USD or GBP/USD if rate cuts are being pushed out).
- Mark two to three decision zones per instrument (HTF supply/demand, prior week’s high/low, session opens).
- Define “no-trade” conditions (e.g., if price is mid-range with no catalyst, skip until a zone is tagged).
Prop-firm mode vs. personal account
He separates playbooks: weekly swing logic on his personal account, and tighter intraday execution for prop rules (daily drawdown, weekend caps, resets). Same macro brain, different rhythm.
- Personal: open Monday with the weekly thesis; hold 1–3 days if the move is unfolding; close by mid-week or Friday.
- Prop: trade intraday around sessions/catalysts to respect daily risk and weekend restrictions.
- Keep the thesis identical across accounts; only the holding period and risk structuring change.
- Never force swing holds on prop accounts if they compromise daily loss limits.
Entries that actually fire (from bias to trigger)
The setup is simple on purpose: HTF context → LTF trigger → risk defined at structure. No indicator soup.
- Frame on H4/H1; execute on M15–M5 only when price tags a pre-marked zone in the direction of the weekly bias.
- Triggers: break-and-retest of structure, liquidity sweep into the level, or clear momentum shift (impulse-flag-break).
- If the catalyst is timed (e.g., rate decision), build early only if the market is egregiously mispriced; otherwise, trade the post-release repricing.
- One attempt per level. If stopped, wait for a fresh structure; do not revenge trade the same zone.
Risk, sizing, and trade management
Win rate ~60–65% with 1:2 to 1:5 distribution beats high win-rate/poor RR. He keeps risk boring and consistent.
- Risk a fixed fraction per idea (e.g., 0.25–0.5% per prop account), never scale because you “feel it.”
- Place stops beyond the invalidation of structure, not arbitrary pips; if that makes risk too large, skip.
- Target the next HTF level for base TP (1:2 minimum). Trail only after partials are banked at 1:2–1:3.
- Daily loss cap ≤ 1.0× average daily gain; hit cap → stop trading for the day.
- Two losing trades in a row → switch to observe-only for the session; re-engage next catalyst.
Trading news and repricing (how he capitalizes on macro)
A handful of times per year, the market is way offside on the policy path. Those are his best trades—prepared days ahead, executed minutes before or right after the release.
- Identify mispricings (e.g., market pricing aggressive cuts that are unlikely given updated forecasts).
- If conviction is high, pre-position light before the event; otherwise, wait for the statement/press-conf tone and jump on the first corrective leg.
- Expect a two-leg move: initial spike, pause, continuation—plan partials accordingly.
- Trade only top-tier events; skip B-tier data that doesn’t change the macro path.
Prop-firm payout strategy (treat firms as perishable)
He assumes firms can change rules or disappear; the objective is to monetize the month, not build a 2-year track record there.
- In evaluations: be slightly more aggressive only on A+ setups to pass quickly; do not waste risk on B setups.
- Run multiple evaluations in parallel; expect some failures; the winners must cover the basket and produce a net payout.
- On funded: standardize daily risk; focus on 1–3 payout windows per month around premium catalysts.
- Withdraw promptly after targets; do not compound indefinitely on prop accounts.
Instrument focus and session timing
He prefers instruments that cleanly express macro themes (majors and gold) and uses sessions for timing rather than signals.
- Trade London/NY overlap for follow-through; avoid dead Asia unless it’s a scheduled event.
- For dollar-driven weeks, pick the cleanest proxy (e.g., XAU/USD or a strong/weak FX pair) and ignore messy crosses.
- If VIX/liquidity conditions are off (chop, no range expansion), downshift size or sit out.
Process and psychology (the actual edge)
Edge = prepared conviction + patience. The system is built so you can do nothing most of the time and still perform when it matters.
- Daily pre-market checklist: bias, instruments, zones, catalysts, invalidation—all written before you click.
- One clean screenshot journal per trade: thesis, entry, stop, TP, what happened; review weekly.
- Protect confidence: stop after cap, skip after tilt signals (rushing, “make-it-back” thoughts).
- Your P&L comes from a few A+ weeks per quarter—engineer everything around being ready for those.
Size Risk First: Fixed Fraction Positioning Beats Gut-Feel Leverage
Pasquale starts with risk, not direction, and that’s why his curve stays intact. He decides the fraction of equity to risk before looking for setups, so the market can’t bait him into outsized bets. Fixed-fraction sizing forces consistency: the same risk on every valid trade means drawdowns remain manageable and recovery math stays sane. If the stop needs to sit wider to honor the structure, he reduces the lot size instead of compromising the stop.
He also separates conviction from sizing—big opinions don’t earn bigger risk, better locations do. When volatility spikes, Pasquale adapts position size to keep the cash risk constant, letting ATR dictate distance while dollars at risk remain fixed. This stops the “one bad day” from nuking the month and keeps prop-account daily loss rules intact. The result is boring by design: small, repeatable risks that stack, instead of occasional hero trades that erase weeks of work.
Volatility-Based Allocation: Adjust Trade Size to ATR, Not Hopes
Pasquale sizes each position to the market’s current rhythm, not to the excitement of the setup. He takes the Average True Range (or equivalent range measure) as a reality check: wider ATR means smaller position, tighter ATR allows a little more size while keeping cash risk constant. This prevents a quiet week and a wild week from carrying the same lot size and wildly different downside in dollars. The rule is simple: fixed dollars at risk divided by ATR-based stop distance equals position size.
He also avoids “volatility blindness” around news and session opens by recalculating after abrupt range expansion. If ATR doubles, Pasquale halves the size or widens stops—never both—so the trade stays coherent and survivable. He treats ATR as a throttle, not a signal, allowing him to participate in big trends without letting one candle blow the account. The payoff is a smoother equity curve where volatility fuels opportunity but never dictates the drawdown.
Diversify by Underlying, Strategy, and Duration to Smooth Equity Curve
Pasquale spreads risk across a few clean markets that express his macro view—think gold and one or two FX majors—so no single instrument decides his month. He also varies the mechanism of entry: one setup might be a break-and-retest continuation, another a liquidity sweep reversal at a higher-timeframe level. By mixing these “how to enter” edges, he reduces correlation between outcomes even when the macro driver is the same. The goal isn’t more trades; it’s multiple independent ways to monetize the same thesis.
He further staggers holding periods, so not every trade lives or dies on the day’s noise. A high-conviction weekly bias can be expressed with an intraday nibble for prop rules and a separate swing for the personal account, each with its own stop and take-profit logic. Pasquale reviews P&L by bucket—underlying, setup type, and duration—to spot hidden concentration and prune what drags. This structure turns one good idea into a portfolio of controlled bets, producing a steadier equity curve without diluting edge.
Trade Mechanics Over Predictions: Levels, Triggers, and One Clean Attempt
Pasquale treats predictions as background noise and execution as the real job. He marks higher-timeframe levels on H4/H1, then waits for the price to come to him instead of chasing candles. When price tags a level aligned with his weekly bias, he demands a trigger—either a break-and-retest, a liquidity sweep with immediate reclaim, or a decisive momentum shift. If the trigger doesn’t print, there is no trade, regardless of how “right” the macro view feels.
Once in, Pasquale commits to one clean attempt per level and accepts the stop without debate. He refuses to widen stops or “average salvation,” because that turns a manageable loss into a rule break. Management stays mechanical: partials at the next structure, stop to breakeven only after risk is paid, and then let the market do the lifting. By prioritizing levels, triggers, and disciplined exits over clever forecasts, Pasquale converts analysis into repeatable action—and keeps his edge intact across changing conditions.
Choose Defined Risk Setups; Avoid Unlimited Downside and Slippage Spirals
Pasquale only takes trades where the maximum loss is known upfront and structurally limited. He rejects naked martingale adds, grid averaging, and unhedged news fades because they convert small errors into catastrophic tail events. If a setup requires “just a little more room” without a clear structural invalidation, he sizes down or skips it entirely. Defined risk means a stop that makes sense on the chart, not a number chosen to feel comfortable.
He also plans for execution reality—gaps, spreads, and thin liquidity—so slippage can’t snowball into a day-ending hit. On news weeks, Pasquale tightens product selection, reduces size, or waits for the first post-release structure to form before committing. If volatility explodes, he chooses instruments with reliable fills or uses limit orders at pre-mapped levels to control entry price. The principle is simple: protect the ability to play tomorrow by refusing any setup that can turn unlimited.
Pasquale’s playbook boils down to a simple engine: build a weekly macro bias, let price come to your levels, and risk the same small slice every time. Across the interview, he keeps pointing back to fundamentals as the “why” and clean mechanics as the “how.” He separates analysis from execution: H4/H1 for context, M15/M5 for triggers, one clean attempt per level, and a stop where the structure says you’re wrong. The result is a boring, repeatable edge—roughly a mid-60s win rate paired with 1:2 to 1:5 outcomes—because he refuses to compromise, stops or chase candles when the market is noisy.
For prop-firm realities, Pasquale treats payouts like a business. He runs multiple evaluations, expects some failures, keeps risk identical from challenge to funded, and times his best pushes around top-tier catalysts. Volatility isn’t an excuse to gamble; it’s a reason to adjust size so the cash risk stays constant while the idea stays intact. He diversifies expression—by instrument, setup type, and holding period—so one trade or product can’t decide the month. If there’s a single takeaway, it’s this: edge is prepared conviction plus patience. Write the bias, pre-mark the zones, define the invalidation, and then do less—until the market finally hands you the A-setup and you execute without hesitation.
